In offshore oil and gas production, pipelines or flowlines are often lowered from vessels and laid on the sea floor. A flowline pull-in apparatus is used to pull the line into the well remotely to make a connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,677, issued to Baugh, discloses an underwater pipe connection apparatus for making fluid connection to a well drilled into a formation underlying a body of water. A storage flowline is positioned for alignment with a Christmas tree flowline by a combination of wireline apparatus and hydraulic apparatus controlled on the surface. Baugh teaches a flowline pulling tool which has a gunnel assembly that may be pivoted downwardly with the storage flowline attached thereto to a position where the storage flowline is in axial alignment with the Christmas tree flowline.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,625, issued to Baugh, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,202, issued to Archambaud et al. teach a pivoting or articulating connector.